Date Night

In New York City, a case of mistaken identity turns a bored married couple's attempt at a glamorous and romantic evening into something more thrilling and dangerous.

Holy mungus, this might very well be the funniest movie I have seen in my life. Troy and I still quote lines from this movie. I'll be honest, Steve Carell is kind of hit or miss with me. Sometimes I think he's funny, and other times I think he's an idiot. He may have won me over in this movie. These two as a married couple really worked, and they are hilarious together. There are so many funny parts in this movie that it would take forever to talk about them all. This is one I'd definitely watch again, and would highly recommend it if you haven't seen it already. Definitely 5 out of 5 stars.

The Expendables

A team of mercenaries head to South America on a mission to overthrow a dictator.

The Expendables was exactly what I thought it would be: an action filled movie with some of my favorite actors. The story was okay, it wasn't anything amazing, but I think the acting was good, and there was a lot of Jason Statham, and that's never a bad thing.

Oops, how did that get there? I've lost my train of thought. Oh yeah, Expendables. If you're not an action movie fan, you won't like this movie. I can pretty much guarantee that. But if, like me, you're all about stuff blowing up and everybody shooting and fighting everybody else, you'll love this. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Zombieland

Zombieland

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• Woody Harrelson,
• Jesse Eisenberg,
• Emma Stone

Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) doesn’t have fears. If he did, he’d kick (more...)

87% liked it

R, 1 hr. 21 min.

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Box Office: $4.2 M

Released: Oct 2, 2009

DVD: Feb 2, 2010

Movies & Actors at Flixster

I'm trying something new here with this movie widget thing.  I think it's kind of cool.  It seems easier than searching for a movie poster, saving it, and then uploading it to blogger.  Anyway, Zombieland.  This movie was hilarious.  Even now, I keep thinking about funny things.  The survival rules were awesome.  I didn't really expect to like it as well as I did.  I would definitely recommend this one!  4 1/2 out of 5.

Surrogates

Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop (Willis) is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.

Meh.  I could leave it at that one word, and that would probably sum up my review.  I didn't really have many feelings about this movie at all.  Not good, not bad, just kind of blah.  But I did find that it was kind of weird that all the people who were living through surrogates weren't fatter.  If all you ever did was sit there and control your surrogate thingy, and presumably you still had to eat to stay alive, I think you'd probably become a little overweight.  Even people in real life who don't exercise move around somewhat.  They don't just lay in a chair all day long.  Also, the people who rejected having surrogates, who were kind of fighting against it were all ugly and a lot of them were overweight.  It was just all kind of backwards.  I probably wouldn't recommend this one.  It just wasn't very good.  3 out of 5

Gamer

 

Set in a future-world where humans can control other humans in mass-scale, multi-player online gaming environments, a star player from a game called "Slayers" looks to regain his independence while taking down the game's mastermind.

This movie had a whole lot of potential.  I really thought the story sounded interesting.  But they blew it.  There were so many awesome things they could have done, but instead they focused on really stupid stuff.  I thought it would be a lot different than it was.  Also, the ending was horrible.  I don't think it could have been worse.  I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, no matter how attractive you think Gerard Butler is.  It won't save the movie, I promise.  2 out of 5 stars. 

Leap Year

 

I'm so behind on my movie reviews!  I really need to get caught up.  And here we have our first joint review.

Dallas: I overall didn't like it. It had some cute parts that made me chuckle. I thought the end was the cutest part. It felt like it was kind of dragging, and I was just waiting for something to happen.

Brenda: I felt about the same as Dallas.  I kept wondering when it would get good.  There was some pretty scenery, but it just wasn't good enough to make up for the lack of story.  Also, there were a lot of romance movie cliches.  Like some old person telling the fake romantic couple to kiss, and then they do a stupid little peck, and the old person says, "no, a real kiss", and then they really kiss and then afterwards they look at each other like they're falling in love.  Yeah, that's been done.  It wasn't horrible, it just wasn't great.  I'd give it a 3 out of 5, or maybe 2 1/2.

Astro Boy

Set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist named Dr. Tenma. Powered by positive "blue" energy, Astro Boy is endowed with super strength, x-ray vision, unbelievable speed and the ability to fly. Embarking on a journey in search of acceptance, Astro Boy encounters many other colorful characters along the way. Through his adventures, he learns the joys and emotions of being human, and gains the strength to embrace his destiny. Ultimately learning his friends and family are in danger, Astro Boy marshals his awesome super powers and returns to Metro City in a valiant effort to save everything he cares about and to understand what it means to be a hero.

We took the boys to see this one at the dollar theater last weekend.  I think it was a cute kids movie, but there wasn't a whole lot to the story.  I guess that's the way most kids movies are, but sometimes I want more details, or more something, because what they're giving just isn't enough.  It was good enough for my boys, though, and Kevin wants to be Astro Boy.  Of course, he wants to be the hero in every single movie we see, so that's nothing new.  I'd give it 3 out of 5. more »

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

After New York City receives a series of attacks from giant flying robots, a reporter teams up with a pilot in search of their origin, as well as the reason for the disappearances of famous scientists around the world.

On Sundays, my family usually has a movie afternoon.  Most of the time, we watch some kind of superhero movie (usually a Marvel comics one), so it took a little bit of convincing to get my boys to want to watch this one.  The DVD cover doesn't look like a regular superhero flick, but I finally convinced them that this was about superheroes, just a little different.  Anyway, not that we've got that bit of background out of the way, on to my review.

I love this movie.  It was very stylized--it felt like I was watching a movie from the 30's or 40's.  The plot and characters could have been a little more developed.  The movie could have been longer.  But what was there was highly enjoyable.  There was humor, action, romance, and fun.  It was a good Sunday family movie.  I rate it 5 out of 5.

The Fifth Element

In the colorful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr Zorg at bay.

I had only ever seen bits and pieces of this movie, so it was nice to sit down and watch the whole thing.  While not the best story, this one was definitely interesting, and kept me entertained.  The acting wasn't great.  I swear the bad guy's accent changed every few seconds, but some of the actors did okay.

For the time it was made, I'd say it was a well done science fiction movie, but I'd probably only recommend it to fans of sci-fi.  I'd rate it 4 out of 5.

You Only Live Twice

Agent 007 and the Japanese secret service ninja force must find and stop the true culprit of a series of spacejackings before nuclear war is provoked.

This is not what the cover of our DVD looks like, but this movie poster was so awesome that I had to use it.  Plus, it almost writes my review for me.  But, since my New Years resolution is to not be so lazy (not really, I can be as lazy as I want), I'm going to actually write out a review.

Troy and I are big James Bond movie fans, but I've realized, as we've collected and watched them, that I do prefer the newer ones.  But the older ones definitely have their value, if for nothing else than the unintentional comedy.  I was laughing during this movie quite a bit, and it really wasn't meant to be funny.  It's just classic James Bond.

I'm not sure I'd recommend this to anyone but James Bond fans, although as a matter of interest, many of the things you see in the Austin Powers movie came from this movie.  I'd rate it 3 out of 5.

Extract

Joel, the owner of an Extract plant, tries to contend with myriad personal and professional problems, such as his potentially unfaithful wife and employees who want to take advantage of him.

This was from the creator of Office Space, so I had really high expectations going in.  Extract was good, but it was definitely no Office Space.  It had the same kind of dry humor, so that was good.  There was just something missing.  I liked it for the most part, though, especially because I really like Jason Bateman.  I'd rate it a 4 out of 5.

Kingdom of Heaven

A blacksmith named Balian has lost his family and nearly his faith. The religious wars raging in the far-off Holy Land seem remote to him, yet he is pulled into that immense drama. Amid the pageantry and intrigues of medieval Jerusalem he falls in love, grows into a leader, and ultimately uses all his courage and skill to defend the city against staggering odds.

This is just my kind of movie.  Epic action movies top my list of favorite genres, so it's no surprise that I really enjoyed this movie.  The battle scenes were well done, mostly, but there was also good characterization, where I cared about what happened to the people, so it wasn't just mindless action.  5 out of 5.

Broken Arrow

Broken Arrow is about two soldiers who are flying a test mission over Southern Utah.  They are carrying two nuclear warheads.  Then one of them turns on the other, because he wants to steal the missiles.  The rest of the movie is one of the pilots, with the help of a park ranger, trying to stop the one who stole the warheads.

It was really bad.  Really, really bad.  Both Troy and I had seen this a long time ago (it was made in 1996), and remembered it being okay.  It wasn't at all.  The acting was horrible, like lines you'd hear in Power Rangers.  The story was full of holes, and people doing stupid things that nobody would ever do.  I really wouldn't recommend this one.  2 out of 5.

Firefly and Serenity

Firefly is a TV series that aired for one season in 2002.  It actually didn't even air for the full season.  I think it's because Fox does not know how to market their shows, or even how to run the shows in order.  In other words, Firefly was a great show that still has a huge fan following, and Fox sucks.

Firefly is set in the future, where Earth became uninhabitable and the humans traveled to another star system, and began settling there.  I would categorize it as a space western, I think.  Most of the show takes place on their spaceship, or with them doing different jobs (they're kind of hired criminals) on various worlds.  The acting is great, and the show writing is great (Joss Whedon always is).

Serenity was a movie made in 2005 that finished the story, since the last show of Firefly definitely wasn't a good ending to the story (in fact, it was horrible).  The movie was every bit as good as the show.  Great sci-fi action.  I would definitely recommend both the TV series and the movie.  5 out of 5.

Brenda's Favorite Movies

House of Flying Daggers

A romantic police captain breaks a beautiful member of a rebel group out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows, but things are not what they seem.  Trailer 

The Chronicles of Riddick

Five years after Pitch Black, the wanted criminal Riddick arrives on a planet called Helion Prime, and finds himself up against an invading empire called the Necromongers, an army that plans to convert or kill all humans in the universe.  Trailer

Pitch Black

A group of marooned space travelers struggle for survival on a seemingly lifeless sun-scorched world.  Trailer 

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring 

In a small village in the Shire a young Hobbit named Frodo has been entrusted with an ancient Ring. Now he must embark on an Epic quest to the Cracks of Doom in order to destroy it.  Trailer

Avatar

A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.  Trailer

Braveheart

William Wallace, a commoner, unites the 13th Century Scots in their battle to overthrow English rule.  Trailer

Gladiator

When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by a corrupt prince, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge.  Trailer

300

King Leonidas and a force of 300 men fight the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 B.C.  Trailer

While You Were Sleeping

Ticket collecting romantic pretends to be engaged to an unconscious man but can't fool his brother.  Trailer 

Office Space

Comedic tale of company workers who hate their jobs and decide to rebel against their greedy boss.   Trailer

Transformers

An ancient struggle re-erupts on Earth between two extraterrestrial clans, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, with a clue to the ultimate power held by a young teenager.  Trailer

Pride and Prejudice (A&E Version)

Jane Austen's classic novel about the prejudice that occurred between the 19th century classes and the pride which would keep lovers apart.

Hope Floats

A woman who comes back to her home town in Smithville, Texas, with her daughter after a very sloppy and painful divorce has to deal with the people in her town.  Trailer

Bridget Jones's Diary

A British woman is determined to improve herself while she looks for love in a year in which she keeps a personal diary.  Trailer

Batman Begins

The story of how Bruce Wayne became what he was destined to be: Batman.  Trailer

Avatar

This movie was awesome!  I heard reviews saying that the story wasn't great, but it was neat to watch.  Not so.  I thought the story was excellent.  I was emotionally invested, it was interesting, and it was well acted.  But they were right about it being good visually.  That was probably the best part.  It was a gorgeous movie.  I don't know what other word to use to describe it.

We saw it in IMAX 3D, and while I usually really dislike 3D movies, I can't imagine this any other way.  I probably sat there with a goofy grin on my face for half the movie, because it was just so beautiful and cool.  You've probably seen previews for this one, but it doesn't do it justice.  It's a great movie, and if you have a chance at all to see this in IMAX 3D, do it.  You won't regret it.  I feel sorry for people who wait to see it until it's on DVD.  It won't be anywhere near as good, I promise.  Pay the few extra dollars to see it in 3D.  It's worth the money!  But, as a warning, it sells out fast.  If you're thinking about seeing it (even later this week), get your tickets right now.  Don't wait.  I absolutely loved it, and it's going on my list of favorites.

District 9

When I saw the trailer for this, for this, I wasn't very interested in seeing it.  The trailer didn't really tell what the movie was about, and it looked a little boring.  This trailer is one that I didn't see, but I think represents the movie a bit better.  The part in the first trailer where they're interviewing the alien, and it says they just want to go home and they didn't mean to come here isn't even in the movie, so you never actually know why they came or anything.

The beginning of the movie was kind of weird.  I felt like I was watching a PBS special or something.  That didn't make it bad, it was just different from most movies I've seen.

There were some things I really liked about this movie, and some things that got on my nerves.  The main character guy seemed to be dumb as a box of rocks, but I think that was the point, kind of.  He was supposed to be dumb.  Also, I started out thinking the aliens were really gross.  They were just disgusting bug-like creatures.  But then, as the movie progressed, I was rooting for the aliens, in particular the father and son.

It ended kind of abruptly, in a spot where you would hope there would be more so you could find out what happens.  In fact, Troy got up to go to the bathroom, and I wondered what he was doing, because I could tell there was five minutes more movie, at most, but he thought there would be a bunch more.  I was right--there was only 30 seconds left when he got back.  I guess that leaves it open for a sequel, but this doesn't seem like the type of movie for one.

I would recommend this movie if you like science fiction or alien movies.  I'm not sure how well a non sci-fi fan would like it, but it was definitely interesting, although there was lots of swearing.  I'd give it 4 out of 5.

Public Enemies

Public Enemies is set in the 1930's.  The FBI, led by Melvin Purvis, is trying to catch the notorious gangsters, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd.  Apparently this is based on true events, although since I'm not up on my gangster knowledge, I didn't know about any of it.

I thought I'd like this more than I did, mostly because I really like Christian Bale.  He's one of my favorites.  But I was pretty bored throughout the whole movie.  In fact, I fell asleep for awhile, woke up, and there was still a ton of movie left.  It felt like we were watching it all day, even though it's only a little over two hours.

It just seemed to drag, and I really couldn't bring myself to care what happened.  There was even one point in the movie where they were watching a boring movie.  And even that dragged out.  So I had to watch a boring movie within a boring movie.  I would probably only recommend this to fans of gangster movies, and I'd rate it 2 out of 5.

Carriers

Carriers is about four young people who are caught in the midst of a viral pandemic.  The virus is passed through contact with those who are infected, and even just by breathing the same air.  They are on the run, trying to find a safe place.

When I read what this was about, I totally thought it would be a zombie movie, and hey, zombies!  But it so wasn't.  Not even a little bit.  It was also the most depressing movie I can possibly imagine.  By the end, I kind of wanted to shoot myself to escape the misery.  The acting was okay, although I wondered a good share of the movie how the four kids had made it so far already, because they were incredibly stupid.

I don't think I would recommend this movie to anyone.  There wasn't even any cool brain-eating zombies to redeem it.  I'd give it a 2 out of 5.

Catching Up

We have watched quite a few movies since my last update. I'll try to remember some of what I've seen, although it might be hard for me to give a good review, since I don't have a great memory. I'll just be giving a rating for the ones I can remember seeing.

Transporter 3 5/5 (best of the 3)

Bolt 4/5 (Cute and funny)

Punisher: War Zone 2/5

Bedtime Stories 3/5

Yes Man 3/5

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans 3.5/5

Taken 3/5 (Second half fell apart a little bit)

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.5/5

He's Just Not That Into You 3/5

Defiance 3.5/5

Knowing 1.5/5 (Not good at all)

Push 4/5 (Ending could have been better)

Fast & Furious 5/5 (Vin is always a 5)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 4/5

17 Again 4/5 (Better than expected)

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li 2/5 (Bad acting!)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 4/5 (As much as I love Transformers, I really could have done without the swearing and stupid jokes)

Inkheart 2.5/5 (Major plot holes)

Race to Witch Mountain 3/5 (Fell asleep for 10 minutes)

That's all I can remember. I'm sure there was more, and a few re-watches as well that I didn't include.